This is first time I play elder scroll games and i bought it from Steam. I can't even find a game manual on steam for the life of me.
How do you change the view from first person to thrid person in this game?

In Oblivion, it was by scrolling mouswheel.

Press F (or R if I remember?)

It's "f" which is damn annoying, as I keep using that to draw my weapons

Either press F or just use the mousewheel to zoom out or in.